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Astronomers took to their telescopes and cameras to capture stunning stills and footage of the peak of the shower on Saturday night (pictured). Among them was Ric Taylor, from Bury, Greater Manchester, who captured these images

A clear sky gave most parts of the UK an opportunity to spot the meteors. This image shows a single meteor in the sky above Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales National Park

This digital composite photo of the shower over Hawes is made up of 30 photographs taken over a period of 15 minutes

During the Perseid meteors, debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle bursts into the Earth's upper atmosphere at around 130,000 miles (210,000 km) per hour.

The meteors, mostly no bigger than a grain of sand, burn up as they hit the atmosphere at 36 miles (58 km) per second to produce a shooting stream of light in the sky.

Since meteoroids that create a meteor shower all move on a parallel path, and at the same speed, they seem to originate from a single point in the sky to observers on Earth, known as the radiant.

A digital composite photo of the shower above Hawes shows some of the roughly 150 meteors an hour that shot through the sky at the peak of the shower on Saturday night

This stunning snap was taken over Normanton in West Yorkshire in the early hours of Sunday morning

A Catholic statue, cross and a church seen during the Perseid meteor shower near the village of Rubezhevichi, some 30 miles (50 km) from Minsk, Belarus, late on Saturday

The best place to view them is under a clear sky and away from urban areas, where light pollution can make spotting meteors more difficult.

A clear sky gave most parts of the UK an opportunity to spot the meteors, said Met Office forecaster Marco Petagna.

He said: 'There were some good cloud breaks, so many areas would have had a good chance to see them during the early hours.

'It would have been pretty good viewing.'

The meteor shower lit up the sky near Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Elsewhere across Europe, skywatchers were also busy witnessing the stunning display.

A white shooting star as it passes over the church at Rubezhevichi in Belarus

Meanwhile in Macedonia, meteors were captured over the artificial lake Kozjak above Skopje, with one visible in the top righthand corner of this image

This image shows a faint image at its centre, as it whizzed over the mountains in Le Sepey, Switzerland

A perseid meteor along the Milky Way can be seen here illuminating the dark sky near Comillas, Cantabria community, in northern Spain

Here a couple near Comillas, Cantabria community, northern Spain can be seen watching a bright streak of light, visible at the centre of this image

A photographer in near the village of Rubezhevichi, some 30 miles (50 km) from Minsk, Belarus, captured a striking image of a red hued meteor streaking above a Catholic statue, cross and church late on Saturday.

Meanwhile in Macedonia, meteors were captured over the artificial lake Kozjak above Skopje.

Shooting stars were also photographed above the mountains of Le Sepey, in Switzerland.

Beachgoers near Comillas, in the Cantabria community autonomous region of northern Spain were treated to a particularly romantic display.

One couple was pictured watching the shower over the Bay of Biscay.

WHAT CREATES THE SHOWER?

The Perseids were the first meteor shower to be linked to a comet when astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli spotted their association with Swift-Tuttle in 1862.

The comet orbits the sun every 135 years.

As the Earth crosses its orbit, it ploughs through some of the debris left by the icy object on previous visits.

None of the particles are big enough to avoid destruction and reach the ground.

Because the density of the dust cloud varies, the meteors are not evenly spaced out.

At certain times they can be close together and at others seem to disappear.

During the Perseid meteors, debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle bursts into the Earth's upper atmosphere at around 130,000 miles (210,000 km) per hour